Bacon-wrapped shrimp are delicious, especially when the shrimp are marinated in a spicy, cayenne-forward rub and mixed with sauteed garlic. The bacon-wrapped shrimp are grilled on wooden skewers with some fresh pineapple chunks, which helps balance out some of the saltiness and richness from the bacon and compliments the shrimp.
Because the shrimp cook so much more rapidly than the bacon, I recommend partially cooking your bacon in advance of wrapping the shrimp and grilling them on skewers; this way, your bacon is done cooking right when your shrimp are cooked through.
If you don’t have a grill—don’t worry! You can easily make these in a sauté pan, or roast them in the oven on a parchment-lined sheet tray all at once.
If you want to adjust the heat level in this recipe, simply reduce the quantity of cayenne and red pepper flakes.
Bacon-Wrapped Spicy Shrimp Skewers
Ingredients
- 12 wooden skewers (each roughly 8-inches long)
- 36 large fresh shrimp (heads removed, peeled and deveined)
- 2 Tbsp sunflower seed oil
- 4 cloves garlic (finely minced)
- 1 tsp red pepper flakes
- 1 tsp ground cayenne pepper
- 1 tsp dried oregano
- 1 tsp Kosher salt
- ½ tsp freshly-ground black pepper
- Zest of 1 lime
- 18 slices bacon
- 24 bite-sized pieces of fresh pineapple
- 1 lime (cut into wedges, for serving)
Instructions
- Soak the wooden skewers submerged under cold water for two hours before grilling.
- While your skewers are soaking, prepare your shrimp and marinade.
- For the shrimp, remove the heads and the peels.
- Gently cut into the outside curved edge of the shrimp’s body with a sharp knife until you reach the intestines, and rinse the intestines out with cold water.
- *Some people just pull the intestines out with their fingers, which works too.
- Gently pat the cleaned shrimp completely dry on paper towels.
- In a small sauté pan, add two Tablespoons of sunflower seed oil, along with the minced garlic.
- Sauté the garlic for roughly two minutes over medium-high heat, or until the minced garlic is aromatic and sizzling.
- In a small bowl, combine the oil and garlic with the red pepper flakes, ground cayenne pepper, dried oregano, Kosher salt, freshly-ground black pepper, and lime zest.
- In a large mixing bowl, toss the cleaned shrimp from earlier in the marinade mixture, and gently try to evenly distribute the marinade on the exterior of the shrimp.
- Marinate the shrimp for roughly 60-90 minutes.
- While the shrimp is marinating, partially cook the slices of bacon until they are roughly 75% cooked, but not crispy.
- *You still need the bacon to be flexible at this stage, so you can wrap it around the shrimp.
- Cut each slice of bacon in half, and wrap half a slice of partially-cooked bacon around each shrimp.
- Arrange roughly three bacon-wrapped shrimp on each wooden skewer, with a bite-sized piece of fresh pineapple between each shrimp.
- *Each skewer at this stage should have three bacon-wrapped shrimp and two bite-sized pieces of pineapple.
- Preheat the grill to 450˚F.
- When the grill is preheated, grill the shrimp for roughly 4 minutes, turning halfway through, or until the shrimp is just cooked-through.
- Serve immediately, with wedges of fresh lime.